Previews

King Arthur

Spiffy:

On par with EA's Lord of the Rings translations; lots of hack-'n-slash action.

Iffy:

Not very deep, so hopefully some upgradeable RPG elements will be employed.

Not many gamers have been left out of the loop as far as the success of The Lord of the Rings' interactive romps are concerned. After all, they are the kind of licensed products that everyone hopes for. Charlie's Angels or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon they were not. EA's The Two Towers and The Return of the King were not only great licensed games, they were great games (which, in our industry, is a rare thing, indeed).

I'm convinced that's where Konami got the bright idea to bring King Arthur into the polygonal universe. It reeks of toner from the copy machine.

For the uninitiated, this summer marks the debut of another Jerry Bruckheimer-produced blockbuster, that being the true story of the guy we've heard about since we were wee lads, King Arthur. But rather than fill our heads with visions of dragons and wizardry, this new filmic vision plans to take us down the path less taken, showing us the real king and his true-to-life Knights of the Round Table.

Help! Help! I'm being repressed!

So far, so good. Developer Krome Studios looks to have been able to mimic the template for EA's Tolkien offerings, re-creating many of the environments from the movie with near-photorealistic accuracy. The character models also maintain that level of detail, with the actor's digital mugs grafted onto their virtual counterparts. However, Konami was pretty sketchy about whether or not who exactly from the cast was involved in the voice recording sessions. My guess is a press release will find its way to our inboxes any day now announcing that all the guys and gals from the production have signed on, considering this game demands that sort of attention. It re-creates nearly every event in the movie down to a key, so unless contractual silliness gets in the way, Clive Owen, Keira Knightly, and others are bound to be on board.

Appropriately, just like LotR, the action is pretty concentrated on hacking and slashing. Nary were there moments when enemies weren't attacking from all sides of the level. Luckily, the co-op mode provides players with some backup, allowing you to choose from any of five characters from the movie (being Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere, Tristren, or Bors; though, I really wish Merlin were on the roster, but many he is unlockable).

The demo plopped the characters on horseback, allowing you to take on baddies with a swift slice of the sword or from far away with a bow and arrow -- which is flammable, if you wish. It's actually quite entertaining to watch the enemies burn, burn, burn to a crisp. After all, all the motions were motion-captured, so their agony is very real.